I had never heard of Dennis or his Subaru STI before I did this story. I’ll be perfectly candid with you guys…as much as I try to keep up with everything car-related around me, I don’t really invest too much time into the Subaru-community. I’ve never owned one and the only ones I’m exposed to are the ones that I see either at car shows or on the interwebz. I only know of a couple guys personally that have them, and Dennis wasn’t one of those guys. We had exchanged texts back and forth when I was trying to get a hold of him to do a story on his car for Super Street, but that was about it. The only thing I knew about the guy was that he was from Team Hybrid. I’ve been familiar with Hybrid since the early 2000s and I’ve also done a couple of other stories on some Hybrid cars for Super Street. When Jonathan Wong hit me up to do this story, he told me that it was for the “stance” issue and I was honestly a little puzzled as to why I’d be shooting an STI for it. The only Subaru STIs that I had seen at that point with aggressive wheel fitment were usually rolling on some fake, knock-off wheels and their fenders were (as expected) fucked-up. I went in with no expectations and when I saw Dennis Kongvongsai’s STI, I was plesantly surprised. The build itself was pretty well-rounded and it looked great sitting on some Mag Blue Volk RE30s. His fenders also weren’t haggered to shit and that’s always a plus.
We met in San Diego over at Autofashion USA because Dennis is from there and I didn’t want him to have to drive up to LA, especially considering the fact that I too was originally from San Diego and I was pretty familiar with the area. I headed down to Autofashion early that day of the shoot so that I could spent a couple minutes hanging out with Freddie. I’ve known Freddie for quite some time now so it was good to see him and catch-up. Dennis arrived a little while later and I took him to a spot down the street to set-up for the shoot. Everything went smoothly for the most part. The only real issue I ran into was that the surrounding areas produced a lot of dust, so Dennis’ STI got dirty right away. He had his cleaning supplies and white cars are usually easy to shoot anyway so we quickly eliminated the problem. I met up with Dennis late so the sun also set quicker than I wanted but we made it work. When you shoot in the late afternoon, you’re always chasing the sunset and that’s why you’ll notice that some of the shots, like the interior and engine bay, look like they were shot in the evening….that’s because they were. By the time we found a spot and started shooting, it was already late in the afternoon. I mean, it wasn’t pitch black or anything but it was getting late. Dennis was a real trooper though and stuck it out with me until we finished. He’s a cool dude. Pretty quiet, not much to say, and just an overall chill attitude. I still run into him at various events and he’s definitely not one of those dudes that you’ve met before, but walk by and act like they don’t see you, if you catch my drift…I remember him saying that he had plans of selling this STI, even before we featured it in Super Street, and the feature just happened at the right time. I believe he already parted it out or was in the process of doing that now so maybe he’ll get choked up seeing these photos, haha, I don’t know. Today, we are going to take a look at some of the unpublished photos from the story as well as some that were used. I normally don’t put up the ones that were published already but I noticed that the ones used on the Super Street website were cropped and parts of the car were cut off in the process. I’ve provided a link to the original story, so please check that out if you haven’t already. The story itself is based around the whole “stance” topic since it was, well, the “stance” issue. I was pretty happy with how everything came together. Dennis is a huge fan of the “hellaflush” and “stance” scene so it works out that I was able to discuss that as well as the build-up and history of his STI. There aren’t too many extra photos from the shoot. Space was pretty tight that day and I knew what shots I wanted already so I didn’t bother with shooting any and every angle. I’ve provided some bonus 1080P-sized wallpapers below, as usual. I’m sure you guys know the routine by now….I did try something new this time around though; I consolidated the interior shots so you guys don’t have to click on each individual photo…Enjoy…
A shot of the Mature rear diffuser, a part that I hadn’t heard of or seen until that day… Larger Version (1400×933)
A couple bonus desktop images for you guys…
Thanks for looking…
Car looks amazing, might have to grab this issue.
Man, this car is beautiful….where can I get that Mature diffuser? its pure art!!